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Monday, August 24, 2009

Daylily oddities

Michael brought this home and said that one of his clients showed it to him and asked him about it. She says that some of her daylilies develop this second growth up on the stalk which she can remove and transplanted. I've never seen this phenomena but I also don't know a lot about daylilies. Can anyone out there enlighten us?

"The term is "keiki", meaning baby or child. Some daylilies reproduce in this asexual manner, as do some orchids. Also, if you think about regular houseplants, the Spider Plant sends out shoots with quite a few keiki plants and tiny blooms. I've had all of the above keiki offshoots and had great success with each.

I have heard one orchidist say that the Phalaenopsis orchid which pushes a keiki means it is not receiving sufficient nutrients. Perhaps. Never researched it further.

With all keiki offshoots, snip them and treat them as any baby plant -- they will continue to root and grow if given proper potting soil and care."

20 comments:

The daylily folk I work with call it a prolif, short for proliferation. If you cut it off of the mother plant and give it a little TLC it will give you another plant. These same folk will look for profifs to cut off of the ones we have for sale or planted in the display gardens, that way you get the plant without having to pay for it or dig it up.

I am so glad you showed this Phillip, I have one daylily with the exact same thing on it, Raspberry Rasper. Why just the one variety and not others, I wonder? Good to know that it can be potted up and grown on and what the name of it is, prolif. Will do so today. :-)Frances

The term is "keiki", meaning baby or child. Some daylilies reproduce in this asexual manner, as do some orchids. Also, if you think about regular houseplants, the Spider Plant sends out shoots with quite a few keiki plants and tiny blooms. I've had all of the above keiki offshoots and had great success with each.

I have heard one orchidist say that the Phalaenopsis orchid which pushes a keiki means it is not receiving sufficient nutrients. Perhaps. Never researched it further.

With all keiki offshoots, snip them and treat them as any baby plant -- they will continue to root and grow if given proper potting soil and care.

I've read about proliferations but never seen it happen on my daylilies. I've heard you can use rooting hormone and stick them in potting soil enclosed in a baggy or something to retain moisture. Never done it.

I see someone else answered it, but we call them prolifs in the club, and they are quite sought after at the end of the season. I can always tell that I will have one if the scape stays green. Fun to watch grow. Then, even more fun to transplant. Certain varieties prolif more than others. Isn't that strange?~~Dee